Maintaining a continuous line of communication with customers is a key part of businesses nowadays. The most used channel of communication by businesses are press releases. Hence press releases form a key part of building public relations. By using the public relations press release template given here, you can conveniently write a press release for the same. Along with the template that you can readily use, you will also find essential tips to write the press release and the other advantages provided by a press release distribution.
Aim: To write a public relations press release succeeded by distributing it.
Tools: To get the above PR written and distributed successfully, the tools (elements) offered here include a template (ready-to-edit), tips to note before writing a press release, advantages, and example.
Template: A ready-to-edit press release template for public relations is given below:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
[Headline] /* [Company/Business Name] + Announces + [The Core Announcement] + attractive news angle (if any) */
[Sub-heading] /* For sub-heading, use a 1-2 sentence summary of the press release */
[Location City], [Date]. [Company/business name], a [well-known/new/emerging/established] name in [type of industry/sector], is delighted to announce [mention the announcement here]. [Mention the most significant benefit of this announcement to the customer + company]. (3-4 sentences)
[Discuss background for the announcement (what caused it) + expand the benefits to customer and company/business] (3-4 sentences)
[Quote from CEO/Owner/Senior Executive of the company/business]
[How the company/business values public relations + work culture of company + Significant achievements of the company/business recently] (3-4 sentences)
[Quote from any beneficiary of the announcement OR client OR any other executive-level officer involved in the announcement]
[Current company/business challenges + commitment to quality products/services + how the industry is changing + how the company/business adapts to changing needs] (3-4 sentences)
For more information on [announcement], visit [provide a link to the official website].
About [Company/Business Name]
[Background (when established, by whom) + vision + mission (2-3 sentences max)].
Media Contact:
[Name]
[Job Title]
[Email address] /* email carrying the domain name of company */
[Phone number]
[Website URL]
[Location city and state]
Press Release Advantages
The various advantages associated with press release marketing are
1) Spreads Out Your Content Online
Given a chance, every business would like more and more people to become familiar with their products, services, and announcements. However, for some or other reasons, they can’t get it done. Press releases are one of the simplest marketing methods that can just spread out your announcement to a big number of sites thereby giving your announcement the much-needed “visibility”. With a little bit of optimization added to your content along with selecting a good-enough partner for distributing your press release, the results achieved will be much better than a usual distribution.
2) Enables Easy Reach to Big News Sites
Many businesses are of the view that getting their business name across big news sites requires hiring a big branding agency and spending a big amount to get started. However, press releases provide a very simple and inexpensive way to creep into some of the most reputed news sites in the world. For this, a business must ascertain beforehand that the press release distributor chosen by them has a syndication tie-up with such sites because not all PR service providers are able to do this. An additional edge that comes along with securing such high-end placements is that it eases the chances to get your other content (articles, guest posts) published on several other big sites too.
3) Provides an Indirect Advantage of Backlinks
Barring the direct benefits offered by a press release, one of the major indirect advantages that a good press release distribution can give to your business is the development of a diverse set of quality backlinks in each successful publication of your press release. These new backlinks will push up your website in search engines and will thus help to grow the number of visitors and sales/leads that you are presently getting with your website. The choice of the PR wire service also influences how good will be the quality of backlinks created due to PR distribution.
4) Gives the Required “Openness”
For a business to be considered transparent in its operation, one essential requirement is that most of the major and key events taking place in the business/company are easily accessible to the interested parties. To make sure that all these major and key events become easily accessible, businesses can issue press releases periodically for the same. Most companies that pay attention to this factor of transparency send out press releases for events like the appointment of a new C-level or top employee, announcing quarterly financial results, announcing new ventures and tie-ups, publicizing new investments and investors, etc.
Tips to Note for Writing Press Releases
1) Bring a News Angle, Get More Attention
Thousands of press releases are issued each day with most of them having a similar tone of traditional announcements in them which prevents them from getting any good considerable attention. To stand out from such press releases, make sure to cross-link it with some unique news angle so that the scope of the press release increases thereby providing more exposure to it.
2) Make it Easily Comprehendible
Your press release will be read by various segments of the population and all of them will not be industry experts or degree holders in the English language. For this reason, your press release must neither have jargon (industry-specific words) nor complex vocabulary. Your press release content should be easily comprehendible by the larger segment of the population.
3) Use a Compelling Headline
Headlines of press releases are instrumental in grabbing the attention of visitors online. So make the headline of your press release creative and compelling. However, during this process, don’t make a clickbait title or misguide any person to read your press release if your content is not in line with the headline mentioned by you.
4) Significant Questions Must be Answered
Press releases are supposed to represent the official statement from the company and due to this, any press release that lacks vital information relevant to the announcement made by the company would have a bad impression on the company itself. In order to prevent such a thing from happening, one must write down all the significant questions that any person interested in the announcement may ask. One must then start sorting the questions based on significance and follow it by providing short 1-2 line answers to each of the most pertinent questions.
5) Don’t Use The Following Words Except in Quotes
I, we, our, mine, you, etc are some of the words that you cannot use freely in press release writing. These words are allowed only if they form part of a quote said by a person like Ganer, President of XYZ Firm, said “I believe that XYZ can …..”. In short, press releases require the content to be written in the third person only.
6) Late Correction is a Major Disadvantage
Getting published on hundreds of sites through press release distribution is a great advantage but asking for corrections to be made on the same hundreds of sites is a great disadvantage too. This factor must definitely be kept in mind while writing your press release as you will have a great disadvantage in making corrections later. So whatever you must put up in a press release must be 100% true to your knowledge and must have been checked several times.
7) Make Use of Media Contact
Once the main body of the press release has been written, the last part added in the form of media contact is also very important and must be paid equal attention to. This is because you never know what form of opportunities can reach your business after your press release gets published and to make sure that such opportunities are not missed, the contact details of that person from your company must be put in the media contact who can quickly and rightfully address such incoming queries.
8) No Claims or Accusations
If in the process of promoting your company or business through a press release, you happen to accuse some other business, then it can give rise to legal problems due to the inability of making corrections later in the published press release. This is also true if you happen to make superficial claims about your product/service. A press release must therefore avoid any such statement that can create controversy or problems later.
9) Ask Sample Report, Distribute it Later
Some press releases make it to sites like Yahoo Finance, AP, Marketwatch, etc while most press releases get published on small and less popular news sites. The difference causing factor here is the choice of distributor chosen for distributing the press release. Therefore, if you aspire to get your PR on big and most sought-after sites, do check a sample distribution report from your service provider.
